Benue farmers complain of poor harvest

Some of the farmers who spoke to our correspondent in Otukpo Local government Area lamented that they did not get high yielding seeds, fertiliser and other inputs.“Not even the usual education for better agronomy practice to boost production did we get,” they said.Michael Oche said he had never had it so bad during harvest like […]

Some of the farmers who spoke to our correspondent in Otukpo Local government Area lamented that they did not get high yielding seeds, fertiliser and other inputs.
“Not even the usual education for better agronomy practice to boost production did we get,” they said.
Michael Oche said he had never had it so bad during harvest like what he experienced this year from his yam, pepper and cowpea farms, adding: “My harvest this year was very poor and I’m not the only one involved, many farmers are also complaining that they got far less than what they bargained for. The government is not helping us because we have no access to good seeds, fertiliser or exposed to changing ways of enhanced farming technology.”
Oche blamed most of the challenges which resulted in poor harvest of crops on the government agricultural representatives who, in his estimation, were not doing enough to distribute inputs through the right channels.
Also, Mrs. EnewaAgbo, a pepper farmer who could not explain why her crop had to turn black at harvest time, pleaded with government to send extension workers to help acquaint them with new methods of combating pepper disease.
On her part, Elahi Elijah who mainly deals with cowpea decried the poor harvest, worrying that her major source of income was threatened.
But, the state Chairman of All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN), AondonaHembeKule, attributed the poor harvest to lack of adequate inputs at the disposal of the commodity farmers, saying: “They (farmers) couldn’t collect their inputs this year. There was a communication gap between the commodity farmers association and AFAN. We are doing everything to bridge the perceived gap so that it doesn’t happen again.”